Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

69 reviews

defeating_my_demons's review

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm

august_18's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Suicide attempt, Self harm, Gore, Sexual content, and Misogyny

Minor: Gaslighting and Bullying

kingcrookback's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This book had me for the vast majority of its duration. The themes of memory and nostalgia; Marjorie and teenage girlhood and not being believed or taken seriously; childhood, facing the unknown, and pasts you can't return to. The story progressed in accordance with the sort of tropes and motifs typically associated with both possession narratives and stories about reminiscence. The blog posts dedicated to deconstructing the Barretts' reality show vis à vis popular horror media put a fascinating turn on the question of memory and moving on from trauma. Even though the narrative was on the side of Marjorie being a mentally ill young girl, some of Merry's description of her memories is genuinely chilling.

The only thing I can't get over is that the ending - and the reveal - felt so incredibly abrupt. I feel like we got very little buildup to the reveal and no time to process its impact on both the narrative as well as our perception of the story. I don't know. I think I need to sit with this a bit longer, maybe convince a friend to read it so I can talk to them about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Self harm, Death of parent, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual content and Incest

thereadingdude's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Vomit, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Murder, Alcoholism, Gore, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Child abuse

Minor: Excrement and Homophobia

g_xandra's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Minor: Blood, Child abuse, Vomit, Sexual content, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Excrement, and Injury/Injury detail

yllex's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual content, Vomit, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Body horror, Murder, and Blood

devynvictoria's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Wow! I have had this book recommended to me for years, but I kept putting it off. I found it at the library while I was looking for something else and decided to give it a go— I am so glad I did! This is easily my favorite book of the year so far. There was such a sense of tension and dread the entire book, I loved it. I couldn’t put it down, I needed to know what was going to happen and the ending completely blew me away. This was my first Paul Tremblay novel, but it definitely won’t be my last.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Death, Mental illness, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Child death, Cursing, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Confinement, and Forced institutionalization

gbyronwilliams's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, Excrement, Murder, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Body horror, Child abuse, and Death

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, and Excrement

Minor: Sexual assault, Bullying, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Excrement, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Body horror, and Blood

thebigemmt505's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

“Maybe I'm just a lost, confused kid, scared of what's happening to me, to my family, to the world, and I hate school and I have no friends, and I spend my days sleeping with my iPod cranked up as loud as it'll go, trying not to go completely crazy, and with all that time alone I'm looking shit up on the Internet, looking up the same stuff over and over, and I memorize it all because I'm wicked smart, because I have to fill my head with something other than the ghosts.”

A Head Full of Ghosts is a novel that turns the typical possession story on it’s head. The audience follows Merry, the youngest daughter of the Barrett family, now an adult, as she recounts the bizarre happenings of her childhood in unreliable detail. 

The story is engaging and tense throughout. It doesn’t have the typical ultra-fast pace that most possession stories have, though it compensates through it’s extra layer of mystery. The reader is meant to believe something “more” is going on with the characters ; one isn’t ever able to fully dismiss the possibility Marjorie is possessed, but one can’t really believe it either. The characters are at the same time deep and shallow, constrained to archetypes yet clearly immensely flawed. The horror, though never truly “horrific,” is successfully unsettling and upsetting. The format of the story is also rather unique and engaging, with multiple perspectives all from one narrator. 

That being said, the book isn’t without flaws. There’s quite a bit of clunky writing, sentences that go on for much too long, separated by too many commas all in a way that may-be-intentional-for-the-character-but-is-still-offputting-sometimes, and it makes the reader either scurry over words or repeat sentences that flow in a too-strange way (see what I did there?). The writing isn’t bad ; it’s certainly engaging and meant to fit the off-beat character, but it is rather messy at points. There is also a huge amount of horror references in the book. References aren’t inherently an issue, and clearly the immensity of them is intentional, though it’s still distracting from the main narrative. The writing is redundant at points, with parts of the plot being repeated multiple times. The moments of redundancy and the long droning sentences make for many “please get to the point”s. 

Aside from it’s flaws, the book is great! It’s entertaining and fun for any horror fan. The themes are interesting and I’ll be thinking about what “really happened” and deconstructing Merry as a character in my head for awhile.  I recommend it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Gore, and Grief

saric7's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Religious bigotry, Vomit, Alcohol, Murder, Gore, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Death, Sexual content, Mental illness, Blood, Child abuse, and Child death